X-Message-Number: 31367
From: Mark Plus <>
Subject: Re: "Better Off Ted"
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:47:47 -0800

In Cryonet #31364, Kennita Watson writes:


>Definitely something to keep an eye on; it might offer good opportunities to 
point out how we're different from the sitcom. Start with that we're not for 
profit and that our experimental subjects are not in good health, and continue 
with what I expect will be myriad differences in the procedures etc. If we're 
lucky, it will be only be one subplot in one episode.


ABC's website might dedicate a discussion forum about the show where we can 
express our points of view regarding its treatment of cryonics, though I haven't
found one yet. The forum might not go online until the series premiers in 
March.


I have the impression from my reading of online discussions about cryonics that 
the criticisms of cryonics from "skeptics" have gotten a lot nastier lately. I 
would love to hear more criticisms in the form of, "No, you cryonicists aren't 
doing it right! Here, let me tell you how to do it better based on my [fill in 
the blank] expertise."


Instead I encounter ones full of emotionally loaded words like "cult," "scam," 
"fraud," "swindle," etc., along with the usual sophistry about how we wouldn't 
want greatly extended lives any way.


I wonder if the economic downturn has fueled a sense of disillusionment about 
scientific and technological progress, with the credibility of the cryonics 
venture as an indirect casualty. In 

contrast to all that negativity, I might welcome a vacuous TV show which uses 
cryonics merely for comic effect.


"Around 2010 the world will be at a new orbit in history. . .  Life expectancy 
will be indefinite. Disease and disability will nonexist. Death wll be rare and 
accidental -- but not permanent. We will continuously jettison our obsolescence 
and grow younger." F.M. Esfandiary, "Up-Wing Priorities" (1981).
http://www.box.net/shared/static/ay9lub60ha.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10948503/Up-Wing-Priorities


Mark Plus



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